The author

Rajendra Chenni is a distinguished bilingual critic, writer and academic. Formerly Professor of English at Kuvempu University, he is currently the Director of the Manasa Centre for Cultural Studies, Shivamogga. He has received several honours, including the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Lifetime Achievement Award, the G. S. Shivarudrappa Award, and the Kannada Rajyotsava Award for 2025.

Series editors

E. V. Ramakrishnan is a well-known critic in Malayalam and English, besides being an Indian English poet and translator. He is a former Professor and Dean as well as Professor Emeritus of Central University of Gujarat.

M. Asaduddin is an author, critic and translator. He has been a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA, and a Charles Wallace Trust Fellow at the British Centre for Literary Translation at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. He was formerly Professor of English and Dean at Jamia Millia Islamia.

Series Editors’ Preface
Introduction
Prolegomena
1. Existing Literary Histories and Their Problems
2. The Kannada Language
3. Ancient Kannada Literature
4. The Vachanakaras
5. Medieval Literature
6. Towards Modernity
7. Literary Modernism: The Navya Phase
8. Drama and Theatre
9. Women’s Writing
10. Post-Navya Kannada Literature
11. Literary Criticism
12. Popular Kannada Literature
13. Folk Literature and Performance
Bibliography
Index